Stagecoach confirms £80million orders for 2015/16

376913 Mar 2015UK

Stagecoach investment includes more vehicles for its Gold-branded services.

Stagecoach has announced fleet orders for 470 vehicles worth more than £80million to be delivered in 2015/16. Alexander Dennis is the prime beneficiary with more than 70 per cent involving ADL chassis or bodies.

The order includes 412 buses for Stagecoach regional bus operations in the UK, 22 new coaches for megabus.com in the UK and Europe, and a further 34 coaches for Stagecoach Express operations in the UK. Of the local bus order, 93 will be specified to operate on Stagecoach’s Gold services.

The latest announcement brings Stagecoach's total orders of new buses and coaches for its regional bus operations in the UK to around £630million in the last eight years, in addition to more than £20million of new coaches for megabus.com services in mainland Europe and £105million of new vehicles for its London bus operations since buying back the business in 2010.

The first of the new vehicles will be delivered from spring 2015 and these orders will mean that the group’s single deck-fleet meets the UK Disability Discrimination Act deadline later this calendar year, and it says it remains on track to meet the deadlines for other vehicle types over coming years.

Along with the country's other major bus operators, Stagecoach is also making a multi-million pound investment in smart multi-operator ticketing across all of the main city regions in the UK. Work on the ground-breaking project is underway and is due to be completed during 2015.

“This new investment is all about delivering better bus and coach journeys for our passengers,” says Stagecoach Group chief executive Martin Griffiths. “We have the lowest bus fares in Britain and a strong track-record of investment over many years that has attracted growing numbers of people back on board the bus. We believe strongly in reinvesting our profits to continue that growth and our sector-leading levels of customer satisfaction. "Buses are central to our communities, giving people a greener way to access work, health, education and leisure. They are also critical to our economy. I'm delighted that most of our new buses will be built right here in the UK, helping support British manufacturing and hundreds of jobs in the supply chain."